UK public sector borrowing falls in May

Britain's public sector borrowing fell in May and is down six per cent from a year ago, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) announced today. Government borrowing in May 2011 hit £16.5bn, down from £15.2bn in May 2010.

January's VAT increase to 20 per cent helped reduce the amount the government had to borrow last month, the ONS said. The City had expected borrowing in May to be slightly higher.

But despite the year-on-year improvement, net borrowing (excluding the cost of bank bail-outs and other interventions) was higher in the first two months of the 2011-12 financial year than in the same two months of 2010-11. According to the ONS the total for April and May was £27.4bn, an increase of £1.5bn on the same period last year.

Read a full report at the Guardian.

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